Lunch Promotes Greener Living

Kate King

Daily Campus

Issue date: 2/27/08

Students interested in learning how to make their lives a little bit "greener" are invited to bring their lunches to the Student Union tomorrow to meet with members of the Office of Environmental Policy (OEP) and discuss environmental conservation.

The event, "Green Bag Lunch: The Truth Behind Environmental Issues," is sponsored by the OEP and will inform students and faculty of various small steps they can take every day to help the environment, according to Heather Heenehan, a 6th-semester environmental science major and the event's main coordinator.

"It's going to be pretty informal," Heenehan said. "Just bring your lunch and hopefully learn something."

Heenehan will kick off the event with a presentation designed to get the audience thinking about different environmental issues. Her talk will include information from a recently released survey that finds Americans are increasingly receptive to the environmental movement.

The survey, conducted by Insight Research Group in partnership with the Home & Garden Television Network (HGTV) and the Natural Resources Defense Council, found that out of 1,000 Americans, 40 percent said they are more aware of environmental issues than they were in 2006 and 84 percent believe that caring for the environmental is a "moral obligation."

Despite this increased awareness regarding the environment, many people do not realize that they can participate in "green" activities without having to live a 100 percent green lifestyle, according to Heenehan.

"You don't have to be completely green all the time, because no one can, that's way too hard," Heenehan said. "It's more about green activities and little things you can do."

Thursday's lunch will provide students and faculty with several simple tips for living greener, according to Dan Britton, sustainability coordinator for OEP. Examples of green activities include replacing normal light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs to save energy or using reusable bags to reduce waste.

"If everyone would just do one small thing then it really would make a difference," Britton said.

The idea of taking small, everyday steps to improve the environment is the focus of Gov. M. Jodi Rell's OneThingCT environmental campaign, launched last summer and aimed at reducing energy costs and consumption.

"If each of the state's 3.5 million residents do OneThing a day, every day, for a year, that would be more than 1.2 billion OneThings - more than enough to make a real difference on issues such as consumption, conservation and the use of clean and renewable energy," Rell said in a message on the OneThingCT Web site.

The Green Bag Lunch will be open for discussion following Heenehan's presentation, and students are invited to ask questions about environmental issues that may need clarification - such as whether recycling and hybrid cars really do help the environment.

Rich Miller, director of environmental policy at OEP, and Britton will be on hand to answer any questions students might have about environmental policy at UConn.

Students and faculty are encouraged to bring questions or concerns along with their lunches on Thursday. The event starts at 11:30 a.m. and will take place in the Student Union in room 320.



Contact Kate King at

Katherine.King@UConn.edu.